Have you used an online doctor service and what was your experience?

Judee

Judee

Psalm 46:1-3
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I wonder if anyone has used any of the online doctors services like Teledoc or DrSays. Those are just a couple of the names I found with an online search last night.

-Have you used one of those or any other ones?

-What was your cost and pros and cons of your experience?

-Did you do phone, video, or email even? (Email might be the nicest for most of us.)

-Also what country are you located in so others can see if a doctor service is in your country or possibly does international televisits. ???

It's just that I don't like the doctor that I choose a few years back for my Primary. She's actually not a very nice person and I haven't had the energy to look for another one.

Until I do, it would be nice to have a doctor service I could consult with online or by a phone visit for little things. It's just I have no experience with using one of these and would like some info before going into it.

Thank you.
 
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Judee

Judee

Psalm 46:1-3
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I'm in the US.

I ended up using one called Webdoctors about 1-1/2 hours ago. I have been having some upper respiratory and sinus infection-type issues for about 3 weeks so I listed it as a sinus infection.

Their website says $59.95 for sinus infections. Eventually when I got to the page where I was to choose the type of appointment, the actual "regular" consultation was only $49.95.

I'm not sure about the difference except that I had saved a $10 coupon code from a review website for another service a few minutes earlier so maybe it picked up on that code and matched it. ??? (The other options were something like "Urgent priority" and "Video call." IIRC they were $79.95 and $89.95 respectively.)

Their entire webform is very limited. I'm glad I put in detailed notes at the very beginning when it asked for the ailment. I think that may have even been before it asked me to created a login.

There was a box there that said, "Additional Information." Otherwise there wasn't a place for more details later on. :(

Also I always like to scan/read the Terms and Conditions and save them for later on my computer. However, when I clicked on that link it only took me back to one of the health history forms so I wasn't really given a chance to see what I was signing up for. :nervous:

The program only let me add one medication allergy and I have multiple ones. I found later that I could use the edit feature on the account dashboard to add another. However, I still had to keep saving out of the allergy form each time. It just wouldn't let me add multiple medications at once.

I have a long list of them so I was in the process of doing that when the doctor called me. I'm so glad he read my "Additional Information" notes ahead of time. He went with the antibiotic I asked for so I didn't get prescribed one I would react to.

He was very nice. He called back in about 14 minutes (even though I hadn't chosen the "Urgent" appointment option). I'm not sure it would always go that way but that's pretty good for 7 in the morning.

He said he would send the prescription over to my pharmacy as well as a refill (which I had requested, just in case). Plus, he said he will include 6 days of a steroid medication and made some other OTC medication recommendations.

My pharmacy wasn't open when I started to type this. I haven't checked yet but I will try to come back later once I know if everything went through okay to add an update.

So far my credit card is showing just $49.95 as a pending charge so that part seems okay. :)
 
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H

hapl808

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That sounds like a great experience. How long did you speak to him? Sounds like it wasn't a video call - I much prefer regular phone calls as I find video calls exhausting, but often my doctor appointments are video calls.
 
Judee

Judee

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hapl808 said:
How long did you speak to him?
Click to expand...
It was maybe just a 5-7 minute phone call (not video...I don't like those either). It wasn't very long because when I asked him if he was able to see my notes he said, "Yes" and read them back to me, said he was going to do the prescription and the refill and that I should wait two days after the first prescription to start the refill if I still needed it.

He told me he was including the steroids, to use Nightquil and benedryl at night if needed. I asked him one more question about the medication and that was that. I thanked him very kindly and then we were done with the call.

Like I said he was very nice. When I called the pharmacy, their automated phone system said there are two Rxs pending so so far everything seems good. :)

Edit: I got the promo code RELIEFSEEKER from that review site I mentioned in case that was why the appointment was $10 off just in case anyone wanted to try it. I'm not sure it will work because as I said it was supposed to be for another site which I didn't think looked as good.
 
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Judee

Judee

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So for an update, because I have state insurance, they won't cover prescriptions written by an out of state doctor who is not signed up with them. I knew the doctor was out of network so out of pocket but thought prescriptions would still be covered. :(

Anyway, that means I'll have to pay out of pocket for these. I probably wasn't going to take the steroid anyway so I asked the pharmacy to put that on my file and not fill it for now. I'll pay $39.99 for the antibiotic.

Still I don't consider it a bad outcome but probably will prompt me to try to find a new GP if possible so I can work within the network and hopefully have costs covered by my insurance from then on.
 
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